The smell of burgers cooking on the grill and the sound of live bands playing brought students out of their dorm rooms and on to the library lawn to celebrate the kick-off day of Earth Week on Saturday, April 20.
Sponsored by Green Up, the 71-degree sunny day was geared toward making the St. Michael’s community more environmentally aware, Green Up member and junior Dan Sandberg says. Additionally, the event allows for Green Up to inform students about some of the programs that the club has been working on all year, he adds.
“I hope everyone comes away with a base knowledge of what we’re doing now and what’s going on for next year,” he says.
A solar-powered Saturday
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A view from a window of the solar bus; live bands performing were powered by the sun's energy |
The main focus of this year’s kick-off day was to make students realize that little things can make a big difference, Green Up member and junior Derek Souza says.
“Not everyone can do huge things to change the environment, but it’s the little things like not driving to Alliot or leaving your computer on all night,” he says.
Green Up offered compostable plates and cups and three different areas to separate the waste into trash, compost and recycling. Members encouraged students to bring their own dishware to the events, so as to reduce the amount of waste even more, Souza says.
Sandberg hopes that these efforts raise more awareness on the campus, he says.
“We want to raise the lowest level of knowledge on this campus in terms of recycling and turning off the lights, etc.,” he says.
In addition to live bands and free food, all of the speakers amplifying the music were powered by a solar bus, owned and driven by Richmond resident Gary Beckwith.
Beckwith hopes that bringing the solar bus to events like this will make people think about the feasibility of using solar power as an alternative form of energy, he says.
Realistically, an area of three or four square miles covered in solar panels could power all of Vermont, Beckwith explains. That is roughly the distance between St. Michael’s and Church Street in Burlington.
To power all of the United States, it would take an area of 100 square miles, which is roughly the distance between Colchester and Rutland, Beckwith says.
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Potted, painted light bulbs decorate one of the tables at Earth Week festivites. |
Planting seeds
Green Up started at St. Michael’s in 2005 and ever since it’s creation, the club as offered an Earth Week celebration on campus, Sandberg says.
Last year and this year have proven to be the biggest turnouts so far for the Earth Week kick-off day, he adds. About 300 people total participated in the day’s events last year and this year, he adds.
In addition to providing an environmentally-friendly week, Green Up started an initiative to reduce plastic bag use in the bookstore and is already working with adminstrators there to make this happen, he says.
It IS easy being green
Junior Bill Degrush attended kick-off day and has participated in Earth Week every year that he has been at St. Michael’s, he says.
In addition to helping out at the table for SOFA, a project that encourages students to donate their old furniture so that other students can buy it next year, Degrush plans to attend one of the intervale trips sponsored by Outdoor Volunteer Efforts (OVE). OVE is a St. Michael’s club dedicated to improving the environment.
“A lot of people are aware of environmental problems but they don’t do that much,” Degrush says. “I don’t even do that much.”
Senior Andrew Reid also attended the event and believes that the day helps students recognize different environmental problems and learn about the ways to resolve them, he says.
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Green Up member and junior Derek Souza flexes his earth-loving tattoo. (Photo by Brielle Domings) |
In the past two years, Green Up has been very active on campus and students have heard more often about the programs it offers, Reid says.
Overall, Sandberg was pleased with the turnout for Earth Week kick-off day, he says.
“Today, in my mind, was a success,” he says.
He would have liked to see more students bring their own dishware because the club ran out of compostable plates and had to get more a couple of times during the day, he says. However, he thinks that the club could have done a better job advertising this aspect and could make a stronger effort to do so next year, he adds.
Sandberg looks forward to the coming week and is excited about some of the events that have already occurred, he says.
However Souza and Sandberg stress that environmental awareness doesn’t stop after Earth Week is over, they say. On P-Day, Green Up encourages students to turn off their lights and computers while they are outside enjoying the day on the 300’s field, Souza adds.
“There were definitely a lot of people that came out today,” he says. “I hope that we keep that energy going throughout the week.”